"The Lovely Gears": architecture and performing arts at LAC with Atelier Blumer and Chiara Bersani

On Sunday, 14 June at LAC in Lugano, as part of the Lugano Dance Project 2026, Atelier Blumer from USI Academy of Architecture will present "The Lovely Gears" – a performance created with choreographer and activist Chiara Bersani exploring the themes of movement and "zombie machines".

For the second consecutive year, LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura has collaborated with the USI Academy of Architecture on the Lugano Dance Project 2026, a contemporary dance festival running from 10 to 14 June. The performance "The Lovely Gears", which will take place on Sunday, 14 June at 2:00 pm in the foyer of the LAC theatre, is curated by choreographer and activist Chiara Bersani alongside the Atelier led by architect Riccardo Blumer and students from the Academy of Architecture.

The project stems from an invitation extended by LAC to Atelier Blumer to engage with the artistic work of Chiara Bersani through a design research journey dedicated to movement. The students were tasked with designing "simple machines" that could move autonomously, driven by a pendulum. Drawing on a concept proposed by Chiara Bersani, the work progressively adopted the "zombie movie" genre as an imaginative and formal reference point, using it as a narrative device for design research. This also inspired the title of the course developed within the Atelier: "Zombies".

The machines designed by the students are built to travel independently along unpredictable trajectories with a gentle initial push, without a defined stopping point, thereby evoking the relentless movement typical of cinematic zombie lore. The 2026 edition of the Lugano Dance Project is curated by Carmelo Rifici, Lorenzo Conti, and Michel Gagnon.

The collaboration follows a first experience developed in 2024, when Atelier Blumer worked with the MK company directed by choreographer Michele Di Stefano – winner of the Silver Lion for Dance at the Venice Biennale in 2014 – on the performance "Mobile Homes – Album degli abitanti del Nuovo Mondo", hosted at the former Diantus watch factory in Castel San Pietro.